Singer Jason Mraz visits Ghana to help end slavery

While Shakira, the Black
Eyed Peas and other top musicians are in Africa to help kick off the
World Cup, singer Jason Mraz was on the continent for another reason: to
help free slaves.

The 31-year-old Grammy winner was in Ghana this
week with Free the Slaves, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to
"end slavery worldwide."

Mraz spent five days in the country,
traveling with James Kofi Annan, a former child slave who used to work
on fishing boats and had been enslaved for seven years.

Annan
founded Challenging Heights, a school in Winneba where many of its
students are former slaves. The children performed songs for Mraz.

The
singer also traveled to a rescue shelter for slaves in the town of
Atebubu and to Lake Volta, where many child slaves are working, said
Peggy Callahan, the organization's co-founder and executive producer.

Callahan
says she met Mraz through a mutual friend and she suggested he go to
Ghana with her.

"The movement to end slavery really needs more
voices, but they really need to be authentic voices, people who really
do care about an issue," she said. "And Jason's one of those people, and
he's willing to take the time to find out."

Mraz is the first
celebrity to participate on the ground with the organization.

The
pop singer is also busy working on the follow-up to his platinum-selling
CD, 2008's "We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things."